Chapter 208: Autumn Harvest Festival (5)

༺ Autumn Harvest Festival (5) ༻

Thursday - the fourth day of the Harvest Festival.

Although there were still several events and contests to be held, the most eye-catching contest today, now that the Tournament was over, was most certainly the Magic Exhibition Contest.

Guardian academies tended to have a greater focus on nurturing guardians who could fight against demons, but there were a few who focused on academic progress.

In fact, many professors preferred working at Merkarva because of the sheer array of books available including forbidden ones, the experiment-friendly environment, and the tendency to be open about sharing knowledge and wisdom.

They had more matters to attend to compared to the mages researching at the Tower of Mages, but even then, some preferred the open attitude the academy had toward magic. The Magic Exhibition Contest was one of the events that demonstrated Merkarva Academy's openness to the development of magic and its desire to share with the public.

Whether it be students of magic, merchant groups, or guardians, anyone was eligible to volunteer and showcase their achievements. This year, there were so many more applicants than usual that there had to be a limit put on the number of participants.

The reason for that was the downfall of the Tower of Mages.

The Tower had served as one of the top two scholarly institutions for magic in the continent but due to their fall after they kidnapped the Saintess, the mages had to turn their eyes to the only remaining top institution, Merkarva Academy.

"Fuu... Let's start from that end!"

Marie was also participating in the contest this time. She displayed a semi-permanent water filtration artifact and a water-quality enhancing magic circle, which would both come in handy for hydroponics.

Although the Dunareff had laid their roots down in many industries, the fundamental basis of everything they had was still in their million hectares of farmland and agriculture.

Recently, they started focusing on magical herbs after "encountering" some experts.

"Daesik. Clean it up."

"Y, yes! Master!"

When the Tower of Mages disbanded, all the core mages ended up under Korin and Marie's wings, and they were able to make use of mages of the Green Cult who excelled in raising magical herbs and plants.

Marie used tens of high-ranking Green Cult mages for free to aid in her research for agriculture, and there was a surprising level of progress as a result.

Thanks to that, her water filtration artifact and the water-quality enhancing circle were very well received. But of course, she wasn't here looking for sponsors.

"Huhaha...! Mari! How incredible! Your papa is greatly moved!"

"Hehe, it's nothing. Not like I did it all by myself."

"We can't let an idea as great as this get an unfair treatment! Let me invest in it!"

"Hmm~. I think we will need a fair bit for us to produce large numbers of mandrakes and tweak the details with the replica of the 10,000-year-old ginseng."

"How much do you need?"

"Around 5 million a year should do! We should be able to get results within 3 years!"

"Of course! Since you're the one doing it; I have no doubts! I will add another million to that, and you can use the rest on whatever you want."

Former Elder Drerian of the Green Cult... who was now Daesik, felt like he was losing his mind seeing the different scale of transactions happening before his eyes.

He had once visited Duke Marde about a potential business with an immaculate idea, but all he had received was an aloof and uninterested gaze.

But look at him now - using up almost 20 million gold just to invest in his daughter's business?

"But Mari, I'm worried about you. Please don't focus so much on research that you ruin your health."

"It's okay. Our head and deputy researchers will be in charge."

Daesik felt goosebumps the moment he heard that.

Recently, his master had been hand-picking mages to establish a research institution to replace the Tower of Mages.

It had horrendous working conditions of no pay and no day off, but researching was much better than living as a slave in the salt mine and the ratio of applicants to the number being hired was 40:1.

Elder mages, who had yet to fully let go of the dignity they once had at the Tower of Mages, were stubbornly against the idea of sharing their knowledge for free but...

Daesik witnessed Chunsik, the former head of the Red Cult, preparing an interview by answering possible questions in front of a mirror. He had to grapple with the reality that he had become a traitor.

"Hkk...!"

Where has our once glorious past flown off to?

Daesik had to swallow his dry tears.

"Then, my dear daughter, shall we go have a meal together?"

"Yeah... Maybe in a bit."

Today was the day when the first group of contestants had to move out and be replaced by the second array of contestants. Marie was waiting for the person who was going to be opening a booth from today till the end of Saturday.

"Korin said he was participating as well."

"...That brat?"

Marde knew that little brat wasn't a mage, but it wasn't like mages were the only ones who could join this contest. There were several merchant groups who sponsored mages to attend the Magic Exhibition Contest.

"He must have prepared something incredible. I'm looking forward to it!"

"Hmph! He knows next to nothing about magic. There's no way—!"

- KIYOOOOOOOOOOOT...!

Let your voices run wild!

Bang the drums!

Go, 8 cylinders-!!

"Drums?"

- Dung dudududung! Dung dung!

- Dung dudududung! Dung dung!

- KIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK...!!

"W, what is going on? What is with this noise?"

"Drums and... harps?"

A solemn yet ominous BGM. It was a sound Marie was familiar with.

"Uhmm..."

Everyone, including Marie, who had witnessed "that event" last year facepalmed and sighed. Meanwhile, those new to it such as Duke Marde were appalled at the sight.

"..."

"...What in the world?"

- Dung dudududung! Dung dung!

- Dung dudududung! Dung dung!

- Bababababam! Bam bam!

- KIYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!

- KIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!

A large demonic carriage was speeding down the road towards the contest venue.

Prototype 1: Cabillac DeVille x2 the Giga Horse.

Prototype 2: Chebrolet Fleetmaster War League.

Prototype 3: Karmageddon Dupe Wagon.

Behind Immortan Lork wearing funky muscular armor were people wearing red pajamas. One of those was Jaeger, playing a flaming guitar and Lark slamming his drums like crazy as well as some part-timers.

"Scream aloud 8-cylinders! Till we arrive at Valhalla, we go! We will revive with the shiny chrome teeth in a world reduced to ashes!"

"Immortan! Immortan! Immortan!"

It was Immortan Lork, back from the underworld, and War Boys being paid 80 silver a day.

The Magic Exhibition Contest was ready to accept Korin Lork... or rather Immortan Lork's piece of art. It was an apocalyptically designed demonstration of technology! The combination of machinery and magic engineering.

Its name: Mad Mex.

"Mari... Does it have to be him?"

"...He's usually very calm and composed."

- KIYOOOOOOOOOOT!!

***

The primary focus of the Magic Exhibition Contest was future potential. How good of an idea was it, and what were the future possibilities available with the development of the said technology?

In most cases, non-student participants were here to announce their ideas and acquire sponsors, while students didn't have anything magnificent.

That was why I was honestly a bit surprised when I saw Marie's filtration system.

However, even that fell short compared to our revolutionary invention.

Although I got a bit carried away and did a cosplay of a movie during the process, the invention that we were showcasing this time around was "engines".

The current magic carriages were too slow but these engines were powerful. The deficit in metallurgy technology was solved with magic stones and instead of the delicate robot arms, we relied on the hard work of mages to build it.

Cars were surprisingly easier to make than expected.

To be fair, there was already a moving vehicle in this world that moved by consuming the energy stored in a magic stone, so it wasn't a strikingly new concept or anything.

We came first with this idea last time as well.

Our invention was still far from perfect. The mages all expected the engine to break down before exceeding 100 kilometers, but—

"Baron Korin Lork? What exactly is this...? I would love to invest a portion if you don't mind. Do you mind a quick conversation?"

"Wow... What is that? It's a strange-looking carriage."

It didn't matter as long as it could last us the 3 days of the contest.

"Zollin!"

"Y, yes! Master Korin!"

"I have to attend another contest so I'll leave the booth to you. Make sure you're nice to all the guests."

"Y, yes sir!"

My plan was to one day make an automobile company with these guys. It would be a shame to waste these doctorates and master degree slaves, right?

First off I would be copying Ferraris and Lamborghinis.

Intellectual property rights? What is that?

***

Leaving the Magic Exhibition Contest to the slaves, I went to watch the long-awaited Cooking Contest to see Ran.

It wasn't as popular as some of the other events, but there were a lot of veterans among the participants, and it was one of the harder contests to win, even in the game.

"Oppa!"

Without paying regard to the surroundings, Ran threw her arms around me. In one of her hands was the first-place trophy.

"Congrats on coming first."

"Hehe~. Did you have lunch?"

"I had a few snacks on the way from the stalls."

On the way here, I had a look around the food stalls and it was pretty much certain that I would be winning the Food Sales Contest this year. All that was left was the Mock Trial and... Haa...

"I'm a bit tired after cooking all morning. Can we go straight back to the dormitory?"

"Alright. Let's go."

It was good because I had been quite busy the past few days as well. Marie said she would be spending the night with her family and...

"Ren and Ron are participating in a contest at night so let's just wait at the dormitory until then."

"Okay. Sounds great."

We came back to the dormitory. Everyone was busy at the Harvest Festival and the dormitory was empty so we went to the sunroom to enjoy all the sunlight by ourselves.

"Oppa."

"Yeah?"

"Should we take a nap?"

"Are you tired?"

She floated a smile in response to my question and snuggled close.

"Not really, but it would be nice to take a nap together."

We laid ourselves down on the two sofas of the sunroom. One was too small for us to sleep together on, so we laid down on two opposing sofas and looked at each other.

"It's already been a year."

Ran said, reminiscing on what happened a year ago. She was right - it had already been one year.

A lot of things happened back then. After stopping Kang Ryun's plan to transcend Hua Ran into a Hou, I was worried whether Hua and Ran would be able to acknowledge one another and cohabit, and it was therefore a pleasant surprise how well they managed their situation.

"Are you two getting along well?" I asked.

"Of course. We have a lot of differences, but we understand each other more than anyone else."

"That's great to hear."

Honestly, I wasn't expecting them to get along so well because for Ran, Hua was an uninvited guest who suddenly took over her body.

"We like the same person after all," she suddenly added out of the blue.

"Kuhum..." I cleared my throat while scratching my suddenly itchy nose.

Everyone was like that these days, but Ran was especially more flirty than others.

"I would like a son that takes after Oppa, and a daughter that looks like me. Hmm~. Having as many kids as possible would be best, right?"

"It is slightly alarming that you are having plans to have kids already..."

"Hehe... Sorry if I'm being annoying, but please let it go kindly. That's just how much I like you."

"...Thanks."

"About what?" she asked.

"For liking me, and for waiting."

"Don't worry."

One day, I would have to respond to their feelings.

Sometimes, I thought to myself, although it was highly unlikely to happen, that it might be better to live with everyone just as Alicia had said.

But... Haa. That won't work.

Someone like me having a harem? That will be disgraceful to everyone who likes me.

I had to make a decision one day. When that time comes...

I pushed that line of thought to the back of my mind, in the midst of my fading consciousness.

.........

......

...

How long has it been? I forced open my hazy eyes and realized that Ran was nowhere to be seen. Instead, what I saw was a red-eyed cat meowing while gazing down at my face.

"Navi, huh?"

It was the cat that had been coming to visit me quite frequently these past few months. I wanted to keep it but the free-willed stray cat always vanished without me knowing.

"Come here come here. Let me pat you."

- Meow...

Being a smart cat that could understand human words, it had a very strong standard of likes and dislikes. Seeing the cat lie down with its stomach facing the sky, I gently scratched its belly.

- Meoww...

The cat rubbed its face on my hand as if greatly content. It started off quite cold but was extremely adorable and touchy these days.

Maybe I was chosen as a potential butler candidate? But that wasn't right because it always disappeared during my sleep, while sometimes crawling onto my bed at night.

"You remind me of Hua."

- Nya?!

"These days, she doesn't want to sleep together. I guess she's starting to be old enough to feel embarrassed."

Last year, Hua loved crawling onto my bed whenever she had the chance to sleep together. It was because she liked the warmth of my body or something.

"She tells me off all the time for having bad sleeping habits though."

Apparently, I touch weird places during my sleep? Like, I was very sad that she was saying that about things I unconsciously did in my sleep.

Despite having the Unbreakable Vajra Body, her body was still very soft and because of that, I sometimes hugged her to sleep like a body pillow.

"Well, I guess that's a part of her becoming an adult."

She was an adorable girl. I could still vividly remember how surprised and grateful I felt when both Ran and Hua expressed their feelings for me...

- ...

The cat quietly listened to me speak just like Hua. It was a very quiet and docile cat.

"Mhmm..."

While scratching Navi's belly, I saw the Red Spear, Gae Derg, that I left next to the sofa before going to sleep.

The beast-hunting magic spear disenchanting magic was certainly not a good spear to leave next to a cat. I was just about to move it aside when it suddenly lost balance and started to fall towards Navi.

"Be careful...!"

I instinctively reached out but the red spear had already slid past Navi. If not for the spearhead being wrapped up with a protective cloth, it would have been injured.

Navi must have been surprised though, so I immediately tried to soothe it.

"Navi. It's oka—"

- Bam!

That was when the cat burst into smoke.

"...Huh?"

Suddenly the weight jumped up several-fold. The smoke started to clear and... what I realized was that, not only was it too heavy for a cat, and he silhouette resembled that of a human.

"Haht..."

When the thick layer of smoke lifted,

Navi, who had been showing me its belly on my knees, was nowhere to be seen and was replaced by Hua Ran in her nun-clothes, looking up at my eyes in a fluster.